Bernard Emile Vivian Burns (16 April 1889 – 29 November 1972) was a British communist, economist, translator and author as an active member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Early life and family
Emile Burns was born in
Basseterre
Basseterre (; Saint Kitts Creole: ''Basterre'') is the capital and largest city of Saint Kitts and Nevis with an estimated population of 14,000 in 2018. Geographically, the Basseterre port is located at , on the south western coast of Saint Kit ...
,
St Kitts
Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...
, on 29 November 1889, the son of James Patrick Burns, the Treasurer and Harbour Master of St. Kitts and Nevis. He had three brothers,
Cecil
Cecil may refer to:
People with the name
* Cecil (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name)
* Cecil (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
Places Canada
*Cecil, Alberta, ...
, Robert and Alan, and one sister, Agnes. As a child, he and other boys would often swim out to the ships that were too big to come into the harbour, black and white boys played and swam together. However, once they reached their teens they were no longer allowed to play together. Burns attended
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
to study economics. While there, he met Elinor Enfield, and the two married in Nottinghamshire in 1913. Their first daughter, Susannah, was born 11 September 1914, and Marca was born on 4 January 1916. At this time Emile Burns was working for
Cunard
Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...
, but was also serving on a national committee enquiring into poverty, which had been set up by Eleanor Rathbone, and which published ''Equal Pay and the Family: A Proposal for the National Endowment of Motherhood''. The family moved to London sometime after April 1918 but prior to the end of World War I.
Politics
Emile and Elinor were both members of the
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
, Emile joining the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1921, followed by Elinor in 1923. Emile found work as the secretary of the
Labour Research Department
The Labour Research Department (LRD) is an independent trade union based research organisation, based in London, that provides information to support trade union activity and campaigns. About 2,000 trade union organisations, including 51 national ...
, except during the
UK general strike
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governme ...
, when he worked as propaganda secretary of the St Pancras
Trades Council A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of labour unions or union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial or ...
.
Emile was a supporter of the London busmen's
rank and file
Rank and file may refer to:
*A military term relating to the horizontal "ranks" (rows) and vertical "files" (columns) of individual foot-soldiers, exclusive of the officers
*A term derived from the above used to refer to enlisted troops, as oppose ...
movement in the 1930s, and edited its newspaper, ''The Busmen's Punch''. In 1935, he was elected to the CPGB's executive, ultimately serving for more than twenty years. He held many positions within the party, most focusing on cultural or educational activity, including a spell as head of the party's propaganda department. He spent a period as editor of the ''Communist Review'', and was later editor of the ''World News''. In the early 1950s, he did much of the preparation work for the party's new programme, the ''
British Road to Socialism
''Britain's Road to Socialism'' is the programme of the Communist Party of Britain, and is adhered to by the Young Communist League and the editors of the ''Morning Star'' newspaper.
It proposes that socialism can be achieved in Britain by the wor ...
''.
Burns translated both political and non-political writings from Russian, France and German into English, including
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
's ''
Theories of Surplus Value
''Theories of Surplus Value'' (german: Theorien über den Mehrwert) is a draft manuscript written by Karl Marx between January 1862 and July 1863. It is mainly concerned with the Western European theorizing about ''Mehrwert'' (added value or sur ...
''. He wrote works of his own including ''Handbook of Marxism'', ''What is Marxism'' and ''Introduction to Marxism'', successive basic explanations of Marxism.
Books and pamphlets
:Finance; an introductory course for classes and study circles 1922
:Imperialism: an outline course for students classes and study circles 1927
:Agriculture by H. B. Pointing and E. Burns 1927
:Russia's Productive System 1930
:The 2 classes in 1931
:The only way out 1932
:Capitalism, communism, and the transition 1933
:What Is The Communist Party? 1933
:The Roosevelt Illusion by Burns, Emile & Roy, F M 1934
:Karl Liebknecht 1934 A Handbook of Marxism 1935
:Abyssinia and Italy 1935
:Spain 1936
:The People's Front 1936
:Difficulties Facing Peace 1936
:Money ~ The New People's Library Volume I 1937
:Communist Affiliation Pamphlet – 1937
:What Is Marxism? 1 Jan 1939
:Party Organiser (CPGB) November 1939 (pamphlet) Mr. Keynes Answered : an Examination of the Keynes Plan 1940
:The Soviet Union and Finland (pamphlet) 1940
:Labour's Way Forward 1942
:Jobs, Homes, Security: Post-war Britain and the Way to Socialism (pamphlet) 1944
:The Case for Affiliation: The Labour Party and the Communist Party 1943
:The Fight for Labours Programme 1946
:The Soviet Transition from Socialism to Communism 1950
:The Meaning of Socialism 1950 Introduction to Marxism Dec 1961 Right-wing Labour: Its theory and Practice 1961
:Communism: Your Questions Answered 1963
:President Nkrumah on Neo-Colonialism 1966 (pamphlet) Money and Inflation 1968
:Winning the peace
:The Triumph of Communism: Communist Manifesto Centenary Speech
:The World of to-Day: Modern Finance
:The Marxist Reader: The Most Significant and Enduring Works of Marxism